Why Do You Let Him?
by Hidden Guardian
Summary: ONESHOT. After being forced to watch a 'bonding' moment between father and son, a trump card finds himself asking the question that no one ever bothered to before. "I just want to know why you keep letting him do that to you!" JezebelCassain & CainRiff


-1Disclaimer: I don't own Count Cain! But I would love to - that woman is a genius.

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Cassain hissed as the loud 'crack' resounded through the room. He managed to keep his face perfectly trained, not revealing how ill the entire scene happening in front of his very eyes made him feel. How could any person be so sick?!

Blood was pouring down flesh as pale as snow and Cassain's heart wrenched because, once again, he had put it there.

Alexis smirked as he slapped the leather whip hard against the stone floor, making a huge snapping sound cut through the air. The young male thrown over the chair in front of the Card Master made no response except to tighten his grip on the back. His knuckles were white and his lips were silent; he hadn't screamed once, not even when the blood began to flow.

Death had made a mistake. Again. And right in front of Cassain's eyes this time, pushing _precious_ little Lord Hargreaves against the wall and kissed him so deeply that, well, honestly the trump had expected Mr. Riffael Raffit to have a heart attack right where he was standing.

Of course Cassain had told Alexis what had happened. The sight happening right in front of him told him that even the High Arcanum did not dare defy the master's orders, let alone a little trump like him.

But time and time again he was stuck wishing he had.

"Have you learned nothing, my Jezebel?" Alexis asked, voice charming like a snake, even as he continued to draw little lines with the whip in his hand against _his own son's_ back. "No matter what you do to disobey me, I always find out. I'll always be here to punish you for it."

The blond turned his head and Cassain's breath caught in his throat as the haunting eyes of Jezebel Disraeli turned directly onto him. "Yes," he murmured, quietly, to his father even though his gaze never wavered, "I can imagine you will."

An unsaid accusation of 'traitor!' echoed silently and Cassain suddenly really did feel like he was going to be sick. The room was spinning around him and, had he not already known the extent of Jezebel's powers, he would have sworn that the man was cursing him in his shoes.

"Then why, I can't help but wonder, does my naughty son continue to disobey me," Alexis practically purred as he stepped up closer to the blond, wrapping an arm around Jezebel's shoulders and sliding a hand up his chest, gripping his throat and using it to tilt his head up. "Perhaps, in truth, little Jezebel actually _enjoys_ his punishments."

Cassain made a face of disgust at the almost sexual air that surrounded the two, and it only got worse when cold, unfeeling death closed his eyes and moaned out a soft "yes."

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"You're a sick person, you know that right?" Cassain demanded as he took another strip of the oil-coated cloth so kindly provided by The Hermit and placed it over one of the deep, bloody lines marring perfectly white skin.

The body that he happened to be straddling shook a bit and the man in a boy's flesh could feel more than hear the laughter that his seemingly random statement had gotten him. "Is that a fact?" Jezebel asked, sounding deceivingly uninterested.

"Do you not realize that he's your father? Half the time, I can't figure out whether he wants to punish you or, well, fuck you."

That time, the laughter was less concealed. "Sometimes, Cassain, that's how I feel about our dear Cain, as I'm sure you noticed or you would not have felt it necessary to even _bring up_."

"I didn't think that he was going to do this."

"Ah, but you did," Jezebel argued, still laying on his stomach with his head cradled in his arms. "You hate me, don't you, Cassain?"

"Sometimes," he answered honestly.

"You wanted that, didn't you? You wanted to see me suffer. You're only angry because I enjoy it." He sounded absolutely coy.

Furiously, Cassain grabbed one of the strips and ripped it off of Jezebel's back, the dried blood coming with it and causing more to spill out.

"Gentle!" the blond chided, turning his head as much as he could without moving his back to glare at him.

"Oh please. Anyone who could enjoy being abused by their father shouldn't be able to _feel_ pain." He sighed and put more of the healing oil on Death's back, noticing that some of the marks weren't closing up. "Some of these will probably need stitches."

"They'll be fine, just leave them."

"Leaving them that way is how you got those scars," he snapped. "I'll just go get a needle and tread from Zenopia and be right back."

"Take your time," Jezebel responded, getting up and wrapping the sheet around his hips, so low that it showed the subtle V that disappeared below the cloth. Cassain tried to ignore the blood pounding in his ears and hurried out of the room.

By the time he had gotten everything he needed to put the psychotic doctor right, he had recomposed himself. "God," he muttered, "now I remember why I can't spend more than five minutes in his infuriating presence." He pushed the door open with his hip and paused when he saw the blond standing at the open window, still in nothing more than that flimsy sheet, with his hands in a small cup.

"What do you have there?"

Jezebel turned his head towards him but his expression was more innocent than any he had ever seen before. "It's dead."

"What's dead?"

The blond shoved out his hands and, held in them, was a little bird with blood all over it. "It used to live out here on my window." Jezebel smiled oddly and petted the folded wings. "But it doesn't live at all anymore. My father probably killed it."

When he looked up, Cassain realized that this tiny dead animal was a worse punishment than any whipping that the doctor would have to endure. "I'm sorry," he said, half-heartedly. "Go lay back down and I'll sew up those marks. They're bleeding worse."

He took the bird back to the window and simply dropped it outside - Cassain almost made a sound at the blunt and uncaring actions after the way he had been holding that messy corpse, but thought better of it. When Jezebel laid back down, he dipped the thread in the anesthetic before putting it through the needle. "This will probably hurt."

"What else is new?" he asked, chuckling. "I hope you aren't squeamish."

The trump made a face as he tried to decide where to start before he finally took the needle and poked it into the top of the longest wet dent. "What _I_ can't understand is that you know exactly what's going to happen to you every time you get too close to that bothersome brother of yours, yet you seem to actually seek him out."

"I'm not sure that qualifies under things that are suiting for someone of your standing to comment on, dear Cassain," Jezebel purred in his dangerous tone.

Cassain scowled. "Yeah, and it isn't for the likes of me to _dare_ to take care of your wounds either, so I'm just going to leave for fear of abusing my situation," he said, lowly, getting up off of the bed.

"Go to hell for all I care, Cassain, but get that strip of metal out of my flesh first," Jezebel said in his most conversational sounding voice though that only made it more threatening. "You're the one who did this to me. You told my father. Why are you helping me now?"

Startled by the blunt question, he turned back to the blond and continued his work. "Because _I_ had a question for _you_. When he started… touching you… why did you react the way that you did?"

In an instant, the doctor's body went tense. "Cassain, you-."

"This isn't about me."

"Oh, isn't it?" he demanded, turning enough so that he could look the trump in the eyes. "Let me guess. You were abused as a child. Ran away from home and ended up living with an older woman with whom you had sexual relations until you found out that - scandal - she was married to the chief of police who chased you right into Father's arms."

"Not even close," Cassain said, angrily, purposely pulling the thread tight in his fury. "My parents didn't love me. They sold me to a man who abused me and _his_ mistress made me fall in love with her, only to betray me. I killed them both in cold blood and sank lower and lower until I was just as _bad_ as your father."

"Watch it," Jezebel warned, seriously.

"But you know what!" Cassain continued, fingers working with determination, "even though I used to hate you - I thought you were arrogant and only got anything because you were 'daddy's little boy' - I feel sorry for you now."

"You, a nobody that isn't even worthy of my _consideration_, feels _pity_ for me?" Jezebel seemed amused by the idea, but Cassain nodded.

"I do. You don't even know your own emotions. You mistake disdain for lust and sadistic humor at your expense for love." He kept his eyes on his work instead of the cold eyes. "When that bastard at the circus who owned me beat me the way your father beats on you, I took a knife and slit his throat and cut out his heart. But you grit your teeth and purr like that man's pet cat."

"The situations are entirely different," Jezebel said, waving him off. "Compare the violence of a stranger to the confident and sure-handed discipline of a parent who has your best interests at heart."

Cassain stabbed him with the needle even harder. "Oh, come on! I'm sure even _you_ don't believe half of the shit that comes out of your mouth!" He scowled deeply especially when Jezebel did not answer. "You know I'm right, don't you? Your father doesn't love you. He loves Cain. In the only way… that man… knows how to love."

"My father doesn't love Cain!" Jezebel shrieked suddenly, "and he certainly doesn't love him more than he loves me! I'm the one who stood by him! I'm the one who obeys him!"

"And you're the one that continued to be his whipping post past the age of twelve."

The doctor snarled and the next thing Cassain knew, he was on the floor, his butt hurting from how hard he had hit. "Get out." It was the coldest he had ever heard Death's voice.

"I just want to know why you keep letting him do that to you!"

"Because! Because for that-! Just leave!" Jezebel turned onto his side facing the window and away from the door where he had shoved Cassain in his anger.

Cassain pressed his lips together and his chest felt cold. "Fine. But Jezebel? I'm probably the person on this Earth who can most understand you. Maybe I don't feel sorry for you so much as I don't want you to end up like me. Even if what you feel is a misguided love…." He trailed off and turned to walk off.

"… Cassain?" He stopped at the doorway with his hand on the doorknob. "I'm not stupid. You think I'm blind to my father's fault, to my faults, but I'm not. You want to know the reason that I let him do this to me?"

"Yes!"

"Because, for that one moment… it's not Cain Father's looking at. It's me. I know that sounds childish, but it's worth it. Just so long as he's look at me."

Cassain felt something inside him turn on it's head. "Doctor-"

"You can go now."

He nodded and opened the door, not sure what else to say anyway, and went out into the hallway. As he stared blankly into space, trying to comprehend exactly what he had just heard, something started tickling he cheek. He furiously reached up to wipe it away and, horrified at its wetness, stormed off down the hallway.


End file.
